Automatic switch for railways



(No Model.)

w. AVN EWTON. AUTOMATIC SWITCH FOR RAILWAYS.

N0. 576,605 Patented Peb. 9,1897.

ATTORNEY S.

UNITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

\VILLIAM A. NEWTON, OF CAMDEN, OHIO.

AUTOMATIC SWITCH FOR RAILWAYS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 576,605, dated February 9, 1897. Application filed January 4, 1896. $erial No. 574,352. (No model.)

To call whom, it may cancer/1 Be it known that I, WILLIAM A. NEWTON, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Camden, in the county of Preble and State of Ohio, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Automatic Railway- Switches, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanyin g drawings, forminga part thereof, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

This invention relates to railway-switches, and the object thereof is to provide an improved switch-operating mechanism which may be employed in connection with tramway-car tracks or on ordinary railways; and with this and other objects in view the invention consists in the construction, combination, and arrangement of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

The invention is fully disclosed in the following specification, of which the accompanying drawings form a part, in which- Figure 1 is a side view of my improved railway-switch-operating mechanism; and Fig. 2, a plan view thereof, showing the rails of the main track and the switchplate or tongue of a side-track.

In the drawings forming part of this specification, A and B represent the rails of a main track, and O the switch-plate or tongue of a side-track, and in the practice of my in-- vention I provide a switch-operating mechanism which is located in a chamber D below thetrack. Thisswitch-operatingmechanism consists of a sprocket-wheel E, which is suitably mounted at one end of said chamber on a shaft E which is supported in standards E and in the opposite end of said chamber is a corresponding sprocket-wheel F, which is mounted on a shaft F which is supported by standards F and adjacent to or opposite the free end of the switch-plate or tongue 0 is mounted a vertical beveled gear-wheel G,

which operates in connection with a corresponding beveled gear-wheel H, which is mounted on a shaft h, supported by standards h The sprocket-wheels E and F and the vertical beveled gear-wheel G are preferably of the same diameter and the beveled gearwheel H is half the diameter of the gearwheel G. The gear-wheel H is also preferably arranged in line with the bottom portion of the switch-plate or tongue, and pivotally connected-with said plate or tongue, at the free end thereof, is a rod K, which is pivotally and eccentrically connected with the said wheel H, and pivot-ally and eceentrically connected with the sprocket-wheel E is a rod L, which is similarly connected with the gearwheelG, and eccentricallyconnected with the sprocket-wheel F is a rod M, which is also similarly connected with the gear-wheel G.

The operation will be readily understood from the foregoing description, when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in view of the following statement:

It will be understood thata knocker or other device is connected with the car or engine or with the caboose of a railway-train for operating the switch mechanism, and if a car provided with such a device be passing on the main track in the direction of the arrow at and it is desired that said car should take the side-track the sprocket-Wheel E is operated and turned in the forward direction, by means of which the gear-Wheels G and 'H are operated and the switch is closed, so as to enable said car to take the side-track, and as the car proceeds along the side-track the sprocketwheel F may be operated so as to open said switch in order that the next car may proceed on the main track, and this operation may, of course, be repeated whenever desired.

It will be apparent that the sprocket-wheel F may be omitted, if desired, in which event the sprocket-wheel E, the gear-wheels G and H, and the connected operative devices will serve to close the switch, so as to enable the car to take the side-track, after which the switch may be operated by hand in the usual manner; and it will also be apparent that the sprocket-Wheel F may be arranged at any de sired point, either along the side-track or the main track, and the connection between said sprocket-Wheel and the gear-wheel Gmay be made in any desired manner, and this is also true, in a measure, of the sprocket-Wheel E.

It will also be apparent that the means of connecting the sprocket-wheels E and F with the gear-wheel G may be changed or modified, and that the various connecting devices may be employed for this purpose, and that said wheels may be connected by devices which will operate in a manner diiferent from that herein described, and yet produce the desired result of opening and closing the switch.

My invention is not limited to the exact form of construction and combination of parts herein described, and I therefore reserve the right to make all such alterations therein and modifications thereof as fairly come Within the scope of the invention.

Having fully described my intention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent- In a switch-operating mechanism, of the character described, the combination with the rails of the track of a sprocket-Wheel E,mounted on a shaft E supported in standards E another sprocket-wl1eel F mounted adjacent WILLIAM A. NEWTON.

\Vitnesses:

MURRAY L. PETERS, AZEL PIERCE. 

